Personal Narrative: The Analyzing Pool Of Water

It is hard to think that in one instant an entire years’ worth of dedication, hard work, and countless hours of training can come crashing down without a single ounce of control over the situation. I never thought this would be something that happened to me. I am careful, I do not take many risks, I do not engage in any dangerous behavior, and I try not to make any stupid decisions. Apparently in the summer of 2015 none of that mattered and life just decided to throw its biggest curveball of my short 15 years of existence.

It was sometime around 6:00 p.m. on a Thursday night in the middle of January 2016. There was a swim meet going on and it was just about to start. The teams were warming up and getting ready for the meet that was due to start in the coming hour. I was warmed up and concentrating on the race listening to music in my newly acquired platinum studio beats. The music was loud and the nerves were setting as I walked into the locker room with my friend and teammate. As we passed I said good luck to our teammate who I was racing against in the 200 free style. Then out of know were he pulled my friend to the side and whispered something in his ear. I didn’t hear what was said as I had continued to walk. My friend came over to me and I asked what he had said and he told me. He told me

On September 1, 2012, I walked into my fifth grade teacher’s classroom for the first time in my life. Mrs.Cullen was standing in the front of the door with open arms ready to welcome her new fifth grade students. As I made my way to my desk and sat down next to Charlie Schutt and Quin Timmerman, I got the feeling that middle school would be a time of talking to some of my best friends and cruising through classes. As the school year progressed, and classroom seats changed, my thought of how Middle school would be changed as well. On the first day Mrs.Cullen explained our schedule, Homework detentions, and demerits. After about fifty questions, she sent us off to our first class, and the first step of our Middle School journey. The fifth grade

I dove through the cold currents, feeling my hands create an opening through the water. I closed my aching eyes and let the water submerge me, pulling me in. The sun cast shadows on the floor of the pool, shifting every now and then. I could feel the warmth of the sun as I swam further. I sighed, deeply content.

"Come on, just a little bit longer. Just a few more hours and I can go home," I think to myself. It's the middle of the school year, right after our bathroom break, the second grade school year. We're the big kids in the hall. Kaley held me in the back and now I really have to use the bathroom. I feel just like the narrator of "Ringing Wet"; I am horrified.

Hitting the wall, I pushed off the wall and swam breaststroke. Here, my legs gave in and began power my stroke. I seemed to be shooting forward, heading towards the wall. My body was beginning to feel like an oven, and my limbs grew numb, but I kept pushing forward. It was time for me to finish this

When I got back, my tub water was almost all over the place. I turn my water off and took off all my school clothes and put them on the counter. Then I put my phone right next to my bath even though it might not be smart. I put my bath salts in the water, then I grab the bath bomb and put my foot in there to check the temperature. Its a tad bit too hot. Both of my feet went in the water and eventually my whole body did. I drop my bath bomb and watch it dissolve which made my bath water turn to a pale pink color. As soon as I lean back, my phone rings. It's my Aunt Jane.

I jumped and spun around, the ball I was about to throw dropping to the ground. Standing behind me was Zoe, number 4, catcher, and best friend in the world--except when she seemed annoyed. Like now.

Maria woke up and thought to herself, I need a change. Something adventurous. Maybe I’ll go to that strange lake I saw. It sure is hot today. And I think I deserve the rest since papa made me work so hard yesterday. With that in mind, she slipped on the worn ruffle dress her sister had passed on to her three years ago. Maria missed her sister, Margarita. Margarita had died many many years ago, at the young age of nine. Seeing that Maria possessed a petite figure, and that Margarita was abnormally tall, Margarita gave the young Maria the dress as a birthday gift. The story goes, Margarita and three toddlers named Juan, José, and Alejandro were playing in the dirt when their mother came up to them and yanked them as hard as she could. You see, her husband had been gone for longer and longer trips out west at a time, and only came back

Before I started going to SOTA, I had been homeschooled for the past X years. And when I transferred from homeschooling to high school, it was like traveling to a different country. During the early months of my freshman year, I felt like everyone around me was speaking a different language and sadly I didn’t have google translate. I was unsure about how to appeal to the seemingly endless crowds of unfamiliar teachers, students, and social customs. This, as I have discovered is unfortunately not just a high school thing. Even when you have survived freshman year and have some vague sense of who you are and how to be your most authentic self, one can still face the common feeling of being out of place in your current environment.

Memorial pool smell the chlorine lots of yelling. Life guards lots of steam lots of heat. I smell the chlorine right when I enter the. Memorial pool and feel the heat and see the steam. As I get out of the locker room I can already hear the life guards yell.

This universe is so vast, diverse, and complex that makes it hard to think that we are truly alone out here. There are more than 100 billion billion earth-like planets, which makes about a hundred earth-like planets for every grain of sand in the world (Urban)! But if that’s the case, why haven’t we encountered any extraterrestrial beings? It’s strange how the possibility is off the charts, but because we’ve got nothing so far, we’re not even sure if they exist. So… where is everybody?

This moment was what we had worked for our entire swimming careers. It was exhilarating. It felt like we were on top of the world. I felt as though everything below me was moving in slow motion but, I didn't mind because I wanted this feeling to last forever. I had the medal around my neck and I was smiling with pure joy.

As semi-aquatic fowls, ducks have adapted over time to essentially create a waterproof barrier that sits atop their feathers. This layer, composed of a waxy oil, allows water droplets to easily roll off of ducks’ backs. From this impressive natural occurrence, a popular idiom has arisen. “Like water off a duck’s back” is the most influential and prevalent sayings in regards to my recent every-day life. Allowing hurtful words to roll off of me as if they were “water off a duck’s back” has illuminated my perspective of life.

13 years. It has been 13 years since I first plunged into the pool to begin my first lesson. I was small, skinny, and shy at the time, not willing to talk to people. I had tried other sports; baseball, soccer, basketball, but I found those to difficult. My dad first brought me to a pool, to splash around in the play area. But I soon found myself wanting to go the deeper parts where the whirlpool and the lazy river were. So I began group lessons on the basics on how to swim, most of the other participants were older than me so I did not make conversation with them. After I finished a couple of lessons and learned how to swim the most basic two strokes; freestyle and breaststroke, I joined a summer team, the Bradley Farm Wave. I was not very